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A Look at Goalies Heading Into the Playoffs

The old axiom is that you need a great goalie, or at least a hot goalie, to win in the playoffs. Generally that is true, although the Red Wings showed over the past 13 years that a team can fare pretty well with above-average goaltending and a strong commitment to team defense.

Still, history shows that a goalie who performs exceptionally well can carry his team. Fourteen times in 44 years a goaltender has won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the postseason. Of the five members of the losing team to win the Conn Smythe, four have been goalies.

Playoff teams rise and fall based on the play of their netminder. That is why Bob McKenzie, the analyst for the Canadian network TSN, has said, only partly in jest, that playoff hockey should be renamed goalie.

Among the goaltenders who will start the playoffs this week, however, few are playing so well that they can be considered that kind of difference maker.

One who has played well all season is Buffalo’s Ryan Miller. His N.H.L. statistics entering the weekend — second in the league in save percentage at .928 and in goals against average at 2.23 — are complemented by his M.V.P. performance for the United States in the Winter Olympics. He is also considered a favorite for the Hart Trophy as the league’s M.V.P.

Ranked ahead of Miller in those statistical categories is the Boston rookie Tuukka Rask (.931, 1.97), who took over from Tim Thomas during the season. Rask’s postseason inexperience could work against him, especially because the Bruins are the league’s lowest-scoring team. The same can be said for Montreal’s Jaroslav Halak, who has carried an inconsistent team that has scored the fewest five-on-five goals (130).

Marc-Andre Fleury of the Stanley Cup champion Penguins has not had a strong regular season — his .905 save percentage was 35th among the league’s 47 regular goalies — but he also did not have a strong 2008-9 season. Pittsburgh will need him to recapture his ’09 playoff magic.

The Devils need some old Martin Brodeur magic, too, after two straight first-round knockouts, against the Rangers in 2008 and a late Game 7 meltdown against Carolina last year. His Olympic performance for Canada was also troubling, as were several late-game gaffes this season, so Brodeur has some questions to answer this spring.

The Flyers will lean on Brian Boucher, who had one good playoff run 10 years ago. He has since played only four postseason games and had some real problems until April.

All eyes will be on Washington’s Jose Theodore, backstop for the league’s run-and-gun glamour team. Theodore surrenders lots of goals. His team scores more, but what if that changes in the defense-first playoffs? Last year, when Theodore was pulled after a poor first playoff game, the rookie Semyon Varlamov was an admirable replacement. That could happen again.

Among the Western teams, Chicago’s goalies will be under the same sort of scrutiny as Washington’s in the playoffs. The talented Blackhawks have settled on the young Antti Niemi, whose .914 save percentage ranked 16th this season, but he has never played a playoff game.

Nor has the Detroit rookie Jimmy Howard, whom some consider this season’s Red Wings M.V.P. for his .924 percentage, fifth best in the league. His playoff-tested teammates could ease his transition to Cup hockey.
San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov is among the save percentage leaders (.921, No. 7). But the Sharks’ annual playoff failures underscore the special nature of playoff hockey, and having struggled for Russia in the Olympics, Nabokov may have to raise his game.

Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, who led Canada to an Olympic gold medal, will begin the postseason after a stretch of inconsistency. He has allowed some weak goals, had some awful games and cannot seem to find the form that earned him elite status.

The Phoenix Coyotes are the league’s surprise team, and Ilya Bryzgalov (.920, No. 8) is credited with sparking their strong campaign. He had a great playoff for Anaheim in 2006, so the surprises could continue.
Los Angeles and Colorado have sputtered in recent weeks, mirroring the performances of Jonathan Quick and Craig Anderson. Each has played more than 70 games, by far the most they had played in a season.
They could be fading going into the playoffs for the first time.

Pekka Rinne, all 6 feet 5 inches of him, had a strong second half for Nashville. His scorching March (9 wins, 1.81 average, .934 save percentage) and only slightly cooler April show he may lead the Predators to their first playoff-series victories.

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Slap Shot, the New York Times hockey blog, reports on the Rangers, the National Hockey League and anything that glides quickly across a frozen surface anywhere on the globe, from the snowy prairies of Saskatchewan to the frigid steppes of Russia and beyond, like, say, Phoenix.

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